Monday, January 21, 2019

Yay! I have my laptop back and didn't lose anything and I'm so happy! Have some photo editing to do for some things I've worked on recently and have to re-install some stuff, but in the meantime, thought I would take a trip down memory lane and re-up a few Valentine's Day home decor and card projects from past years. Projects are linked in the titles.

Friday, February 8, 2013

I love it when a plan you didn’t have comes together! But first...if you're looking for the BFF Open House link party, it's still going on right here . Great ideas to check out and link up your own.

So. I had this big antique metal key in my stash and wasn’t sure what I was going to do with it and then I was going through my stamp stash and ba-da-bing.

The stamp has the sentiment that brought everything together but more on that later.

I had this fantastic black and white glass heart in my Blue Moon Beads design team materials. LOVED it from moment I saw it but wanted to save it for just the right thing.

I pulled it out along with some antique gold chain, findings, and this metal tassel pendant. All by Blue Moon.

I attached pieces of a toggle clasp from the findings package to two lengths of chain and glued them to the back of my key.

While that was setting, I worked on my focal point. Using the glass heart, metal pendant, another key from my stash, some ribbons and an antique book ring ( 7 Gypsies) I just kind of played around until I liked the result. This involved more findings from the same package.

I tied my focal to the book ring and then the book ring to the chain and finished up with some strips of leftover drop cloth. And now we’re back to the tag using the stamp that started it all.

Small manila tag, dusted and swiped with Distress Ink ( antique linen) with a scrap of leftover paper and a piece of washi tape. I debated about saving this to give Mr. C. for Valentine’s Day but decided I wanted to look at it now. It’s hanging in our bedroom where we both can see it. From the moment I got this key he’s claimed it as his. Well who knew he was right? ‘Cause he does hold the key to my heart.

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

I’ve always wanted a coffee filter wreath. And I’ve always wanted one that’s fluffy and dense. But I haven’t always wanted to spend what seemed like ton of time to get that really dense look. So here’s my take on spending a medium amount of time on one ( 1hr give or take) plus I re-purposed a styrofoam wreath I already had on hand. For this project you will need:

Recycled or new wreath form

Basket Coffee Filters

Glue Gun

Cheesy Lifetime Movie on in the background ( optional)

I started with this monster:

Skeleton of an early crafty experiment. We’ll call this wreathus formicus. Decomposed down almost to the bones.

I was originally going to fold coffee filters in quarters and then lay them flat all around the wreath. But I like fluffy and when I was folding, started twisting the bottoms of my quarter folded filters thinking after I got them glued on I could fluff them out a bit. It was at this point I started thinking about doing more video tutorials because I need more hands!

Fold a coffee filter in half, then in half again to quarter and then grab and twist the bottom until it looks like a badminton thingy. Now you’re going to ask me “how many badminton thingies” did you make? To which I answer: “A bunch” . Serious answer is I started with an open package of coffee filters about 3/4 full, finished that up and used another maybe 1/8th to 1/4th of another pack so I’m going to say a package should do you.

Here’s where I wish I had the video because I got busy twisting, gluing, pulling glue strings off myself that I didn’t want to get on my camera so didn’t take pictures along the way bad blogger! I glued the twisted part down, then guaged where the next one should go, glued the next one down and so on. I starte in the middle of the wreath went all the way around then did a row on the inside and outside of the first row. After that, I just fluffed.

Kind of reminds me of daffodils. This is to try to illustrate what I mean by fluffed vs unfluffed:

Unfluffed, you can see the natural creases of the coffee filters. Fluffed, is just softer.

Thursday, June 24, 2010

For whatever reason, I've never done a lot of decorating for the 4th. No conscious reason...maybe it's because we're not usually home but this year I was determined. So here's the first of we'll see how many projects! This started out as a table leg or banister part? Not sure which...I found it at my favorite salvage place for a dollar ( and of course bought more than 1):

I painted it red with appropriately named "Americana" acrylic paint, and then dry brushed it with white. I made a medallion for the center using crepe paper and a circle cut from a recycled cereal box covered with scrapbook paper. It needed something for the middle so I painted the center of a bottle cap with the red paint, put a gold "4" sticker from my sticker stash and then filled in the bottle cap with "Diamond Glaze" by JudiKins. This gave it a dimensional / enamely look:

I went around the raised areas of the leg/post thingy with a gold paint pen and then Mod Podged some scrap strips of the scrapbook paper. I originally thought I was going to put flags in the hole at the top of the leg/post thingy but that didn't work out so I Mod Podged a washer with more scrapbook paper and glued it to the top to make a base to support a votive candle holder and:

Not the best pic but here it is on my mantle ( next to my crystal candlestick I got for $4 to which I glued a piece of milk glass I got for $5 at the Salvation Army thrift store!)

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Unless otherwise credited, all projects are those of The Answer Is Chocolate. Please link back etc. and I will always do the same for any projects I feature that are from other sources. Thanks a bunch!